


Frigid World, Warm Embrace ❄️ Beta Lumity Musher AU

by TunaTrash



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Animal Death, Beta Lumity, Dog sled au, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Good Siblings Edric and Emira, Hurt/Comfort, I don’t know why I wrote this, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, King is a husky-mutt :D, Luz and Amity get lost in the wild, Musher Au, Near Death Experiences, Not because there’s anything inappropriate but because I feel like that age fits beta designs better, Owl Mom Eda, Sled Dog Races, So Gus is 14, Survival, Swearing, Tags will constantly be updated, That’s the basic summary, animal hunting, blizzard, but i hope you guys like it anyway, characters are aged up to 16, it’s minor and doesn’t go into detail though, minor blood, no beta we die like men, wtf is this??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27638957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TunaTrash/pseuds/TunaTrash
Summary: While Luz is spending a few months up is Alaska with Eda and a certain smug, rich girl grabs her attention, causing her to compete against her in a dog sled race, the two end up lost together once a blizzard rolls in.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda, Amity Blight & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Luz Noceda & Eda Clawthorne, Luz Noceda & King, Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 7
Kudos: 101





	1. Flurries of Snow Caught In A Mane of Green Hair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Askebrehebr- I’ve been working/planning out this fic for a while now, so I really hope you enjoy the first chapter of this winter-themed fic!

Snow drifted to the ground, causing the white sheet to only grow deeper and even give off an almost magical glow from the sunlight that was leaking through the clouds, it almost made it a bit hard to look at.

Luz watched the flurries of snow pass as she leaned against the doorway with a smile. She always loved snow, just as much of not more than rain. It was always just peaceful to watch or sit under. “Hey kid, you getting cold or do you just really feel like letting the cold in for the rest of us?”

The latina looked over her shoulder and chuckled at the bushy haired woman inside the large, cabin-like house. She pulled away from the doorway before stepping backwards and into the house, shutting the door behind her. She turned around to see Eda standing a bit behind the teenager with her arms crossed and with a teasing smirk. When Luz walked up to her, the woman ruffled her hair.

“Alright, alright, no need to maternally messed up my hair!” She laughed, pushing Eda’s hand away before running her hands through her hair to straighten it and readjusting her beanie while Eda made a joking gag sound when Luz called her ‘maternal’.

The two made their way further into the rather house, which Eda had fondly named ‘The Owl House’ due to the fact that she owned two pet owls, a larger one named Hooty, named after what seemed to be his inability to stop hooting who always stayed inside of the house at this point after he got scared during an outside flight and ran into a tree, so he perfected to stay inside now. The second was a much smaller one named Owlbert that went with Eda nearly everywhere, always perched on her shoulder.

A fire crackled in the living room’s fireplace, the single fire being used as the only thing to currently warm and light up the house at the time. Both Hooty and Owlbert were perched on the clothes hanger next to the fireplace, which Eda put there instead of by the door so the owls could perch there and also because her coats or jackets could dry off faster due to the snowy weather. Among the owls, a husky-mutt laid on the couch with mostly black fur except for the occasional gray patch on his chest and tail-tip as well as the white mark on his face that reminded Luz of the shape of a siamese cat’s face mask pattern, finally with his left ear being folded over while his right remained pointed up.

“Alright King, get off the couch! You know you aren’t allowed up there!” Eda said, shooing the dog off the couch, which gave her an annoyed growl in response before sliding off the couch and onto the floor.

Luz sat on the couch next to Eda, the old woman having an arm wrapped around her shoulder. It didn’t take long for King to make his way back into the couch, by basically believing he was a lap dog and climbing back onto the couch to lay in Luz’s lap. While King technically was a husky, he very much wasn’t pure bred. He had a bunch of different breeds in him, making him a mutt, but his most prominent was his husky. On top of that, he was the runt of his litter, so when no one bought him and the owners had prepared to put him down, Eda had stepped in and adopted him herself. She might claim now that she regretted adopting the bratty dog, but Luz could tell how fond Eda was of him.

The fire continued the crackle lightly and Luz took a deep breath and closed her eyes, enjoying this moment of silence. Most often around The Owl House, it was pure chaos, mostly from a problem Luz and King had found their ways into by poking too far into the woods, but the temporary peace was still nice, especially knowing it wouldn’t last for long.

A knock on the door echoed through the house and King suddenly sat up straight, his ears pricked before leaping off of Luz’s lap, accidentally kicking her with his clawed paws in the process. The dog scrambled over to the door, howling and barking at the top of his lungs as he scratched at it, causing Eda to groan in annoyance, “Alright, I’m coming.” She hollered to try and be heard over King’s barks.

The woman stood up and stretched her arms over her head, popping her back, before walking over the door and patting King on the head a few times to try and get him to settle down. Luz leaned forward on the couch with her elbows propped up on her knees as she looked over to see who was at the door, a grin appearing on her face when she saw a familiar pair of friends.

“Willow! Gus!” She said excitedly as she quickly stood up and walked over to the door while King was sniffing their palms excitedly before Gus started to scratch around his neck, the small husky’s tail thwacking the ground repeated with pleasure.

Willow looked up from the dog and at her friend, “Hey Luz!” She said, lifting one hand to give her friend a small wave. “We were just coming over so we could show you around town like we promised.”

The latina smacked one hand to her forehead and tilted her head back a little, “Oh my god! I totally forgot about that!” She gasped, that was the whole reason why she had been standing in the doorway earlier, besides the snow. Luz quickly turned to Eda, “I can go right?” She asked, suddenly unsure if she would say no or not.

Eda waved her hand dismissively, “Ya, I don’t see why not. Just don’t end up with a body that I have to help you hide.” She wrinkled her nose as she let out a snort through a short burst of chuckles before looking at Luz again, “Take King with you though, maybe I’ll be able to finally get a few things done around the house.”

Luz smiled at the woman, “Sure thing Eda!” She said before patting her leg twice as she stepped outside of the house, “C’mon King! You’re hanging out with the cool kids today!” She joked, to which the husky let out a quick bark in response before walking out after her.

The latina heard Eda shut the door behind her as she took a couple of quick paced steps so she was walking side by side with her friends. She adjusted her beanie to cover her ears even better before long when a cold breeze made her shiver.

“Wait, so is Eda your mom or..?” Gus asked, breaking the short pause of silence that had fallen between the friends. Luz nearly choked on her own spit at her youngest friend’s question before letting out a laugh, “What? No, I’m just living up here with her for the next 5 or 6 months.”

Gus just looked at her as if he were more confused than before, “I thought you moved here, like permanently? Don’t you have school back with your actual mom? Do you have an actual mom?” He continued to question, earning an elbow from Willow, “Dude, you seriously need to learn where boundaries are. I know your dad is a news reporter, but you can’t just interview people constantly.”

Luz only shrugged and laughed a bit, “It’s fine, he didn’t hit any sensitive spots for me, but he should probably be careful with others, just in case.” She said, pausing so Gus could nod in understanding.

“So, my mami and Eda are really close friends, to the point that even I’m wondering if they’re ‘just friends’,” Luz started, making make quotation marks when she said ‘just friends’. “Well, I wasn’t doing very well at school this year... or any of the years before that. I always end up causing some sort of chaos or trouble due to my ‘weirdness’,” once again pausing to just air quotes, “It eventually got to the point where I’d already gotten myself expelled from one school and was getting close to getting expelled to the one I was going to unless my mami did something about it.” She admitted with a nervous chuckle rubbing the back of her neck.

Both Willow and Gus looked at her, seemingly entranced with her story before Willow piped up, “So, what did your mom do?” She asked, looking curious.

Luz stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and looked at her feet, kicking a small, loose chunk of ice and sending it sliding through the snow and causing King to quickly give chase after it. “She was actually planning on sending me off to a different school for the rest of the year and possibly even into the summer to help me think more ‘inside the box’,” She continued, using air quotations for the third time already during this conversation, “Luckily, in the end Eda convinced her not to and to instead have me come up here to Alaska since it would give me a new place to live and be able to grow and learn.”

When neither of her friends spoke up, leaving the three in silence except for King, who was still pushing around the chunk of ice Luz had kicked earlier and chasing it around, she quickly took her hands out of her pockets and clapped them together loudly to break the silence. She smacked her lips together to make a little ‘popping’ sound before speaking again, “And ya, now I’m here! And good thing too! Or else I never would’ve met you guys!” She said, giving Willow and Gus a grin.

Gus looked at her thoughtful before speaking, “Aren’t you mad at your mom..? Even just a little bit?”

Willow immediately glared at him, to which he looked at her with wide eyes and put his hands up, “Sorry! Sorry! Think before I say!” She said quickly.

Luz looked at them, her lips pursed out and she didn’t even hesitate before responding, “No, when it comes down to it, I wasn’t.” She said, “I mean, I was maybe a little annoyed with her at first that she didn’t understand what I really needed, but she’s always been great, supportive, and hardworking. On top of that, she was honestly my only friend up until I met Eda and King a few months back and then you guys two weeks ago. So to answer your question, no, I wasn’t mad at my mami. She just... Doesn’t understand me all the time...”

The latina trailed off quietly before she looked over at Gus to see if he had anymore questions, but she ended up smiling when she realized that his expression now looked much clearer and less confused. She looked ahead at the path the three of them, plus King, before smiling when she saw the town ahead, “It looks like we’re here!” She said excitedly.

Although Luz had been living up here with Eda for nearly 3 weeks now, she had only ever actually been in town 3 or 4 times and even than, she hadn’t ever really been able to see a lot. This was exactly why she was here now with Willow, Gus, and King, to get the full tour.

King must’ve realized that they’d practically arrived at the place where he would manage to steal the most food from shops around the place and quickly took off running towards the town excitedly.

Luz had to quickly take off after him with Willow and Gus close behind, knowing the trouble he could quickly get into and the stolen snacks she and Eda would have to pay for.

The latina ended up having to slow down as she reached the outskirts of the down, having to move around the houses and buildings, and even the occasional person as she chased after the runaway mutt. She slowed down to a stop and looked around, drowning a little when she lost sight of King. It didn’t take long for the crash of a trash can that had been knocked over echoed through the building and Luz quickly hurried towards it, finding and glaring at King, who had very much knocked over a trash can sitting along one of the outlying houses of the town and begun to dig through it.

“Alright, get out of there.” Luz said with a laugh as she grabbed King by the collar and pulled him of the trash can, keeping him back with one arm as she attempted to gather it all up and put it all back into the trashcan with the help of Willow and Gus.

After all of the visible or large pieces had been picked up, Luz carefully tilted the trashcan back up before turning back to look at King. “Jesus Christ, you’d think we never feed you!” She exclaimed as she bent down and picked up a tin can the husky-mutt had begun to chew on before tossing it into the trashcan.

When the dog let out a whine and pouted at Luz, she couldn’t help but sigh and smile at him, scratching him behind the ear. “Okay, okay, I promise I’ll by you some sort of snack while we’re here,” She paused for a moment, “As long as the little allowance Eda pays me is enough.”

“Ew, are you really playing in the trash?”

The new voice took Luz by surprise as she frowned and looked up at the teenager standing around only a foot in front of her and King.

The girl in front of her had her arms crossed in front of her with her head tilted to the side with a smug, condescending smirk on her face. Her dyed green hair was only partially tied up while the rest of the bushy mass hung down around her shoulders and going down her back, the flurries of snow still falling from the cloudy sky catching in it easily. Her sharp, golden eyes seemed to pierce through Luz as she continued to watch the latina, seemingly waiting for a response.

Luz furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she stood up, quickly realizing that while this new face was taller than both Willow and Gus, she however was not taller than Luz. “Urm- No, we were just cleaning up the mess my dog made?” She said slowly.

The green haired teenager unfolded one of her arms and rested it under her chin, “Oh, so you’re sad excuse for a dog plays in the trash and you choose to join it?”

Luz’s frown only deepened, what was this girl’s problem?

“Okay Amity, we get it...” Willow’s exasperated sigh caused Luz’s attention to flit to her for a moment before quickly returning to the kinda-really-frustrating bitch standing in front of them.

The girl, whose name was apparently Amity, turned to Willow, her expression changing to a mixture of shock as well as multiple others that Luz couldn’t recognize on the spot, before returning back to it’s earlier smirk. “Oh Willow, everybody already knew you were trash, you didn’t need to actually hang out with it to prove it.” She paused to shrug a little, “But I guess I shouldn’t expect any less.”

The latina couldn’t help but notice that as Amity taunted Willow, it came out more forced than it had been while she was talking to Luz, but it was quickly forgotten as a wave of rage rolled over her.

“Hey!” Luz snapped, stepping closer to Amity so they were practically 3 inches apart, “You can’t talk to her like that!” She said angrily, jabbing a finger into the green haired teenager’s chest.

Amity glared down at Luz’s finger, stumbling a little bit backwards when she jabbed her. She looked back up at Luz with a smirk, but a slightly more angry look in her eyes as she pushed Luz’s hand back towards her. “Look, I don’t know if you’re new around her, but you clearly don’t know who I am.” She sneered, “I’m Amity, Amity Blight.” She introduced herself, putting emphasize on her last name as though it was supposed to glue Luz in on something.

Luz glared right back at the snotty Blight, smacking her pale hand away, “And I’m Luz, Luz Noceda.” She responded sarcastically while emphasizing her last name in a way similar to the way Amity had, “What, is your name supposed to mean something to me?”

The green haired girl glared at Luz harder, her smirk disappearing, “Look Noceda,” She paused after saying Luz’s name sarcastically, “since you clearly are too dense to figure any of this out, I’ll give you a free pass this time. Blight’s are basically the most powerful family around here and I suggest if you don’t want trouble to stay out of my way.”

Before Luz had the chance to respond, Amity spun around on her heel before walking away, quickly disappearing among the buildings.

“What the hell was her problem?” Luz muttered, mostly to herself before turning back to Willow and Gus, Gus who was still partially hiding behind his taller friends. “You guys didn’t tell me you had prissy, bratty rich girls here too.”

“Oh that? That was just Amity. She’s like that a lot, but I have to admit she was a bit worse than usual.” Willow responded, sounding tired at Amity’s appearance and relieved that she had left, while at the same time sounding as though she were disappointed in Amity in someway.

Luz titled her head a little, “It sounded a little bit like you two know each other.” She asked curiously.

Willow winced a little at Luz’s statement before quickly shaking it off, “It’s really nothing, we used to be friends when we were little kids, but we grew apart over time.” She stated simply, clearly not wanting to be asked about it any further and Luz decided to go with her unsaid wishes.

The latina bent down and pat King on the head before scratching him behind the ears in an attempt to calm down the growling dog. “Well, let’s not have Amity’s sour attitude ruin the rest of the day,” Luz suggested, standing up straight again, “Let’s go check out the town! I’m honestly starting to get hungry, if you guys have any suggestions for where we could eat.”

For the first time since Amity’s appearance, Gus piped up with a grin on his face, “Oh! I know this amazing hotdog place! If we head there, their hotdogs are 25% off on Saturdays, so we’d be able to save some money!”

Luz grinned at the idea and glanced over at Willow to see if she had any objections to the plan. When she didn’t, the latina pumped one fist into the air, “Hotdogs it is! Lead the way Gus!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It turns out that dogs weren’t aloud in the building, so Willow and Gus had to go in and buy four hotdogs while Luz and King waited outside and once they did come out, Luz paid them the amount the two hotdogs had costed before giving one of them to King as the four now all sat on the curb outside the building in the Alaskan cold compared to the warmth of the indoors. However, Luz didn’t really mind, that just meant that she got to eat the meal with both her human friends and her dog friend.

Luz licked her lips as she finished another bite,“I gotta admit Gus, you were definitely right about this hotdog place!” She said before taking another bite. Gus’ only response was a muffled sound of agreement as he nodded through a big bite.

A whine escaped from the dog sitting next to her, who had apparently finished his own hotdog, as he looked up at her, licking his lips. Luz looked back down at him, slowly chewing a mouthful of hotdog and swallowing before letting out a sigh and dropping it on the ground in front of him. “Alright, enjoy it, but you owe me back!” She said, rubbing his head as he quickly gobbled down the rest of the food.

She gave King a small grin before her attention was pulled away by a flier that drifted in front of her. “What’s this?” She said aloud, catching Willow and Gus’ attention.

It was a pale blue paper with small snowflake patterns scattered across it with a sled team running at the bottom. On it, in bold letters, read:

‘3 Day Long Sled Dog Race’  
‘First of It’s Kind!’  
‘Come See Next Saturday’

“Oh! That’s the sled dog race!” Gus said, pointing out the obvious, although Luz didn’t say anything about it, “The Blights’ are hosting it, everyone’s pretty sure they made it just to show off Amity’s skills. It’s meant to test both the speed of your dogs, as all races test, as well as the skills and survival instincts of the musher since they’re traveling for days in the middle of the wild. It was actually supposed to be canceled due to the rotten weather rolling in next week, but the Blights’ apparently paid a lot of money to keep it going.” He looked away from Luz and over at Willow, who was just finishing off her hotdog, “Do you think that might’ve been why Amity was worse than usual today? The upcoming race she’s gonna be in?” Willow only shrugged in response as she crumpled up the wrapper her hotdog had been held in, but she looked as though she thought it was possible.

Luz’s eyes widened a bit as she looked back down at flier again before returning her gaze to her friends, “Blight’s a musher?” She asked, raising one eyebrow, “I thought she just would’ve been one of those prissy girls who would probably have servants to put down coats whenever there was a tiny puddle of water in her path, or something.”

Willow shook her head, leaning back a little bit and propping her hands behind her, “No, she’s very much a musher.” She confirmed, looking up at the sky, “She been training hard on it for years and years of her life, always NEEDING to be on top. She’s participated in a few smaller races and easily dominated, I guess this’ll be her biggest yet.”

The latina went silent, looking back down at the flier thoughtfully with her lips pressed lightly together. She remembered how rude Amity had been to King, how nervous Gus seemed to be around her, and the way she had acted to Willow.

Luz couldn’t stand for it.

“Hey.” She said determinedly, holding up the flier with a smirk on her face, “Why don’t I join too?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gus after watching Luz and Amity face off: Are they fighting or flirting??
> 
> Anyways! I hope you really liked this chapter because a lot more are gonna he coming!


	2. Expectations and A Dusty Sled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eda digs up her old sled and Amity’s parents have great expectations from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all of the kudos and comments so far! They mean so much to me and I always look forward to seeing them!
> 
> With that said, I do hope you enjoy this chapter despite it being a slower one! <33

Amity opened the door to the manor slowly, carefully twisting the nob and pushing the door open so it wouldn’t creak. Despite the warmth and welcoming look of the Blight manor, Amity couldn’t feel anything but unwanted and unwelcome here. She often tended to try and stay out of the house as much as she could, but in the end, she always had to return at the end of the day for one reason or another.

She began to make her way up the stairs as quickly as she could without alerting her presence. If she could just make it up to her room, she could just study and play her music loud enough that she wouldn’t be able to hear the possibility of her parents arguing. She just had to get to her room.

“Hey Amity.”

Emira’s voice from the bottom of the stairs immediately caused the bushy-haired Blight in her tracks and wince, just one step away from reaching the top of the stairs. She quickly hid it and turned around to look down at her older sister, rolling her eyes in well-practiced false annoyance, “What is it?” She asked, looking off to the wall instead of directly at Em, “I gotta keep on preparing for the race next week.”

Em sighed and took a couple of steps up the stairs so she was closer to her younger sister, “Trust me, I know.” She said, putting her hands up, “But mom and dad are actually wanting to talk to you about that, and you know how they can get when you keep them waiting...”

Amity stiffened at this, biting her tongue and clenching her hands into a fist with her nails pressing into her palm. Her gaze slowly dropped down to her feet, “Alright.” She responded, knowing that if she talked too much her voice would start to tremble and reveal her anxiety with the situation.

She made her way down the stairs at a much slowly pace than when she had ascended them originally. Her original plan was to just walk past Emira, but her sister rested a hand on her shoulder before pulling her so Amity was standing in front of her.

“Hey, it’s gonna be alright. It’s probably just going to be one of those family business talks, okay?” Her older sister said gently with a soft smile on her face.

Amity looked at her numbly for a moment before shrugging her sister off, “Ya, I know...” She said plainly, acting as though she didn’t care. However, deep down she really did care and Emira’s kind words warmed her heart, and her older sister was able to see straight though her and know how much her words meant to Amity, so her smile didn’t falter when her younger sister walked away.

The bushy-haired Blight fought the urge to look over her shoulder at her older sister until she rounded the corner, so when she looked back she only saw the wall. She let out a deep sigh and rubbed her face in an attempt to erase any remaining worry that was on there before carefully opening the door that lead into her parents’ office.

“Mother. Father.” Amity said, alerting them of her presence that they were probably already aware of the second her hand grabbed onto their door nob, “You wanted to see me?” She was quite pleased with how steady and firm she was able to keep her voice.

The two pairs of eyes in the room quickly landed on Amity, feeling as though they were stabbing right through her. “Hello Amity.” Her mother responded, her voice silky and smooth. The woman walked towards Amity and it took everything in the young Blight’s power to not step back or look down. “We heard that you were having... concerns about the up coming race.”

Amity’s fists tightened as she felt her body go rigid, “I mean...” She said slowly, her gaze starting to flick away from her mother, darting from the floor, to the wall, to the fireplace, anywhere really, “The reports of the upcoming weather had been worse and worse and while I do have the experience to be a good musher like you want me to be, I don’t feel like I’m trained enough to go through a storm while racing, especially when I’m going to be out in the wild for-“

She was abruptly cut of when Odalia suddenly grabbed her by the chin, forcing her daughter to look at her. “We don’t want you to be a good musher,” She said coldly, looking Amity straight in the eyes, “We need you to be a perfect one. You will run this race. After everything we have done to prepare you for this, you aren’t just going to back are. Am I understood?”

Amity’s breath hitched, her mother’s nails poking uncomfortably into her cheeks. She couldn’t stop her eyes from frantically glancing around the room, even pausing on her father for a moment as a small spark of hope lit in her that he would possibly put a stop to this, but it was quickly squashed as soon she saw the same face she had seen every time she hoped for help from her father, dismissive and uninterested.

Odalia’s nails pressing harder into Amity’s cheeks quickly caused her attention to return to her mother. She couldn’t find herself to look into her golden eyes that Amity shared with her, instead staring at the bridge of her nose as she fought back tears.

Molo The young Blight swallowed heavily before finally managing to find words, “Yes mother, I understand.” She said, forcing her voice to not tremble as she choked out the words.

Odalia seemed satisfied enough with her daughter’s answer and let go of Amity’s face, stepping back. She nodded a little bit, a false smile resting upon the Blight matriarch’s face. “Good. Now that we see eye to eye, you may go to your room and continue to prepare for your upcoming race.” She said, waving Amity away.

Amity stepped back, fighting to stop her trembling as she nodded stiffly, than turned around and left in silence.

As soon as Amity exited her parents’ office, she heard Edric and Emira call her name, asking her questions, but their words fell upon deaf ears as she walked past them numbly. She faintly heard her mother exit the office and tell her older siblings to leave her be, she had a long night of studying ahead of her. She however ignored all of it until she entered her room, carefully closing the door behind her with a small click.

The young Blight slowly turned on her music, the sound echoing on the walls before turning so she was standing in front of her desk. Suddenly, she threw her arms out in front of her and shoved everything off of her desk, causing a loud crash to mask her wordless scream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Luz, I really don’t think this is a good plan.”

Willow’s unsure tone completely flying over Luz’s head as the latina hurried up the path towards The Owl House with Willow, Gus, and King trailing behind. “Amity can’t keep treating you guys like that!” Luz objected without looking back, “If we’re gonna get her to stop, I’m going to have to beat her at her own game.”

Gus stumbled as she tried to keep up before responding to Luz, “Ya, but this competition is meant for people with training to both mush and survive, something I highly doubt someone whose been living in the city all her life knows anything about!” He cried, throwing his hands into the air.

Luz simply shrugged as she closed the last of the gap between her and the house, grabbing onto the doorknob, “Eda can teach me!” She said, unable to hide her smile, “Plus, I’m sure it’s not that hard, I’m just gonna need a sled and a few more dogs, right?”

She heard both of her friends audibly wince behind her at that statement.

Luz twisted the knob before pushing the door open, King immediately pushing past her and scrambling into the house, startling Owlbert awake.

Eda looked up from the kitchen counter where she was making some sort of meal and looked at Luz and Co. in surprise, her eyebrows furrowing together, “You’re back early, I expected you to be out for at least another hour.” The woman tossed one of the carrots she’d been chopping up into her mouth before pointing at Luz’s hand, “What’chu got there anyways, kiddo? A wanted poster or something?”

The latina hurried over to the counter before quickly slamming the flier on it, looking up at Eda excitedly, “No! It’s a dog sled race and I want to go!” She said, one of her feet erratically tapping on the floor.

Eda raised one eyebrow and pulled the flier out from under Luz’s hand reading it over before shrugging, “I mean, I guess we could head down and watch the race kick off next week before opening up the shop.”

“What? Nononono.” Luz responded quickly, taking the flier back from Eda before holding it up to her and tapping it repeatedly, “I want to go be in the race! I wanna put together my own team and compete!” She said, her voice a determination and eagerness.

The old woman’s eyes widened before narrowing them into a thoughtful, questioning look as she looked over Luz in contemplation. “I mean, there’s gotta be another reason for why you want to do this, correct?” Eda asked after a long moment of silence, “Is there a prize or something at the end of the race, ‘cause I didn’t see anything about that on the flier, or is there some person you wanna impress, or something like that?”

Luz pressed her lips together tightly at the mention of it, Amity immediately coming to mind. She hesitated for a second before responding, “Well, I mean there was this girl that we ran into today and she was just being such a jerk.” She said slowly, “And it turns out that she’s going to be in this race and that her family is actually hosting the race so I thought... You know... Maybe I could beat her or something like that.” She admitted, slowly becoming embarrassed about the idea while confessing it to her mentor. “I don’t know if you know her, but she talks about herself like her name’s a big deal.”

“Oh, a revenge race?” Eda responded with a mischievous, toothy grin, “Who is this girl you wanna beat in this race so bad?”

The latina rubbed the back of her neck, looking down at the flier, “Her name is Amity Blight, big fluffy dyed green hair, a bit shorter than me, kinda scary golden eyes-“ She said, beginning to list of attributes of the Blight girl while counting them on one hand.

Eda suddenly clapping her hands together quickly cut off Luz, causing her to look up at her wildly grinning mentor, “You got me at ‘Blight’!” She said excitedly, “You could’ve just told me this was about those snooty asshole Blights in the first place and you already would’ve had me hooked on the idea!”

Luz immediately perked up, a smile making its way onto her face, “Wait, really?” She said hopefully. Eda leaned back, popping her back before popping her fingers as well, “Of course kid! I’m gonna have to teach you first, because there’s honestly no way I’m going to send you out there if I end up feeling you’re unprepared.” She said, her tone suddenly serious.

The latina leaned forward on the counter, her face turning serious, reflecting her mentor’s, “Yep. Of course. Completely understandable.”

A smile quickly returned on Eda’s face before she reached over the counter and rubbing Luz’s head, “Good.” She said, pleased.

Behind them, Willow stood back, pinching the bridge of her nose and muttering under her breath, “Anyone else, literally anybody else would say no. Any other sane person in this town would say no.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dust filled the air as the rickety old shed door creaked open, causing Luz to sneeze before rapidly rubbing her nose to get rid of the itch. Eda entered before her, walking towards the center before ripping an old blanket off of the shape in the center, causing another billow of dust to build up. Luz squeezed her eyes shut and wrinkled her nose, attempting not to sneeze once more. She finally peaked her eyes open after a moment, before suddenly gasping in shock at the sight of the sleigh.

“You see this bad boy-“ Eda started, patting the wooden sleigh with one hand, “-I built ‘em up by hand when I was your age. I competed in one race and won... but then I quickly got banned from doing a race again once they found out I cheated. So probably don’t do that unless this is the only race you want to be in.” Her mentor advised.

Luz didn’t respond, a smile slowly creeping onto her face as she walked up to the sled, gently touching it. “Wait- You made this?” She said in shock, her eyes wide. Eda gave a hum of confirmation and Luz’s smile only grew, “Holy shit...”

Eda clapped her hands together in an attempt to clear the dust from the sled off her hands. “Holy shit indeed.” She said smugly before rolling her shoulders, “Okay, now help me get this out of here. It’s been sitting in this sled for so long I’m sure it’s probably stuck to the floor.” Luz’s mentor joked, taking a hold of the reigns.

The latina nodded and walked up next to the old woman, taking a hold of the reigns as well before sharply yanking on them, startled to find it was actually quite hard to move from all the dust and grim connecting it to the floor.

After a short while, the sled was finally pulled loose before getting dragged out of the sled and into the snow. Gus and Willow had been long sent home by this point, Eda saying that they would distract Luz too much.

“Wow. Okay, I’m actually going to do this!” Luz said, unable to hide her excitement as she looked over at Eda, “Now all we need to get are a few more dogs and maybe some food and stuff, right?”

“Well yes... But no at the same time, you are completely wrong.” Eda stated slowly as she tapped her chin. “This sled isn’t big enough to carry enough food for three days as well a tarp for you to make a shelter, supplies for fire, etc, etc, etc.” The old woman began to say, waving her hand in the air as Luz’s smile slowly began to fall.

Eda noticed Luz’s change in expression and smiled a bit, messing up her hair, “Don’t look so sour kiddo.” She chuckled, “This is what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna buy the supplied we need, due to the fact that I have money and you do not, this will be taken out of your allowance though.” She said, pausing for a moment before continuing, “So that’s what I’m going to do, meanwhile you are going to fix up this sled. It hasn’t been touch in years, so it’s all creaky and will probably fall apart. When I get back, I’ll teach you how to survive out there, hunt, make a fire, stuff like that you know.” Her expression turned serious, “It’s going to be a lot of hard work preparing for your first race in the span of a week, but we can do it if you really do work hard to do your part in preparing.”

Luz’s expression immediately changed to one of determination, “Of course I will!” She said, “You can count on me!” A proud smile quickly found it’s way onto Eda’s face and she nodded. “Good, than I’m going to head out and start buying while you work on this.” She said before starting to walk away with a small wave.

The latina shot finger guns after the woman as she walked away, “You got it teach’!” She called after he before turning back towards the self with her hand on her hips. “I- I don’t really know how to do this, do I?” She asked herself quietly before sighing. “No, no I do not.”

She let out a sigh before popping her knuckles and running a hand through her hair. Than she better get started so she could figure it out.

After all, the race was only so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How it’s looking so far I expect the race to start during chapter 4, so just one more of these slower chapters than we’ll really be kicking off! Thanks for reading!


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